Public Reactions to your art

[Logan]

Over the weekend I happened to witness a Genbukan class whilst doing my own training. It seemed pretty well run but what caught my eye was a small group of Japanese playing table tennis who found the concept of westerners "pretending to be ninjas" (to loosely translate) more than a little funny.

I've encountered this before with other Japanese martial arts, especially koryu and traditional arts. I suppose for many modern Japanese, these arts seem old-fashioned. In many ways the perception must be akin to a Scottish person seeing someone from asia come over, stick on a kilt and take part in the highland games...or study bagpipes.... or counting to ten in a strange brogue....

I was just curious what sort of reactions people have received when others find out about their MA practice?

 

[Hand Sword]

Hmmm...a quick pose in the Karate Kid's Crane stance with a whaaaa sound was common. Another one was the famous "one upper" where they always say they used to practice too, and they were always at least one rank higher than you.

 

[Logan]

I'd forgotten about "the crane"....don't forget the "wax-on, wax-off" stuff too!

 

[Hand Sword]

I never got that reaction. Instead it was "Your kung fu is weak!!" "You wanna fight? Fight me!!" then a stance of some sort with double chops and a ha!

 

[Logan]

I've been called "young grasshopper" a few times....

 

[Hand Sword]

Yeah I heard that too. Of course it was always with an attempt at squinting eyes and an "asian" voice speaking english, and a bow. (with the hands in prayer position)

 

[Sensei Payne]

I work I have gotten the nick name "Karate Kid" but I really don't mind it...because its not said in a derogatory manner...in fact its great cause I have people come to me and ask when classes are and if I do private lessons...reason why the "karate Kid" is said respectfully is because when I first started there someone was making fun of my Martial Arts and told me it would never work on him or on any form of attacker...so I invited him out to my Dojo for a private lesson, and him being a basic egotistical redneck/thug type....oh course agreed to prove himself right...and when he came for the private lesson, which I did for free considering it was more demonstration than anything...I had gained his respect because I showed him that it does work and it works well.........so getting back to work after that weekend turned out that he told some people that he came by the dojo and I showed him a few techniques and such and the effectiveness....and then the jokes stopped and the Karate Kid tittle was something that I could be proud of instead of taking it as "teasing"...

the guy and I are good friends now

 

[KempoGuy06]

I get made fun of by one of my "friends" (i use that word with quotes so i dont get banned from the site. Anyway they always tell me that its stupid for me to study the MA's. "your 22 yrs old, that stuff is only for kids.", "what do you think you are some sort of tough guy now." I always look at them and say "im the second youngest person in my class, i do it because its fun and benificial to my health. come to a class and find out for yourself."

B

 

[Drac]

Back when I was a bouncer and it would slip that I studied MA I usually got the standard "I kicked some karate guys butt once" from some jerkweed...The word katate guy was often interchanged with "bouncer at clubs name" and usually my answer was dependant on my mood and the amount of alcohol I had injested..Normally it was my standard "Not my butt you didn't" or "Not when I was on duty"...

 

[Grenadier]

For the most part, the public seems to like our school. We put on demonstrations once in a while, and get some decent responses most of the time.

We do, however, get a few humorous individual reactions.

One morning, I was teaching our kobudo class, and had a room full of folks wielding bo.

A few kids from the town came in, and started making Bruce Lee imitation noises, as well as the usual attempts at making Asian language-like sounds.

I was about to say something, until one of our assistant instructors, an elderly gentleman with a heart of gold, walked up to those boys, and said in a very friendly tone, "why don't you come on in? We'd love to give you boys some free lessons!" with a broad smile.

The leader of those three boys screamed "NO!" in a high pitched tone, and ran out the door.

 

[Drac]

A few kids from the town came in, and started making Bruce Lee imitation noises, as well as the usual attempts at making Asian language-like sounds.

I was about to say something, until one of our assistant instructors, an elderly gentleman with a heart of gold, walked up to those boys, and said in a very friendly tone, "why don't you come on in? We'd love to give you boys some free lessons!" with a broad smile.

The leader of those three boys screamed "NO!" in a high pitched tone, and ran out the door.

:lfao: Excellent...

 

[tshadowchaser]

for the most part I do not tell people I study.
those that do know are impressed that at my age I can study.
Those that know how long I have studied are usualy impressed that i have stayed with it as long as I have and want to know more about my art

 

[KempoGuy06]

I agree with Drac thats funny.

I had someone that was making fun of me once and that asked for a little demo. So i did a series of kicks and they seemed to lose their voice. it was kind of odd

B

 

[14 Kempo]

I am a person that rarely says anything about it, however, there are times when friends make reference to the fact. I've never had a negative reaction. In fact, most reactions are what I consider respectful and a bit curious. Mostly it is something like, "Why would anybody mess with you to begin with?" I have had people try to joke around about it at times, but it is almost always a very obvious, light-hearted, poke at the arts and most of the time I let it role off ... I don't consider that a negative response.

 

[tsd]

I was just curious what sort of reactions people have received when others find out about their MA practice?

Most often public response is postitive, regardless of race, sex etc.....I find it very interesting how I am approached. You can tell a "quality black belt/martial artist" within the first few words.....respectful, interested in tsd and happy to talk about their style. These folks are wonderful emissaries for their styles and teachers.

 

[kingkong89]

i can relate somewhat. with my own experiance. every year for the past several i have along with my fellow black belts, sensei, and students done a demonstarion at rocky fork lake in ohio at kamp dovetail. it is a camp for kids with disabilities. and when we chage in the mornign and break for lunch we are still in our gis. most of the time i will take the school on a tour of camp. i also volunteer my time at this camp through the week. but on friday of the week i change from medical to martial artist and am in my gi the whole day. just walking around the camp some are shocked due to the fact that we are dressed in such a way. some are frightened due to the fact a few carry their swords at their side with their hakamas on.

 

[bluemtn]

I have to request time off of work for testing, and would have to list "why" I was (gave me a better chance of actually getting the day off). I wasn't going to even bother saying it was for, but I kept getting asked, and my BF just blurted it out anyways. So, now I get asked to break something, asked how high I can kick. That's not the worst I've encountered though. When there was a demo, I'd here, "whaaaaa!!!", sometimes followed by laughing.

 

[Lynne]

I have had some positive and negative reactions.

My old-fashioned family thinks that Martial Arts is for men and homosexual women. I'm feminine and I'm straight so they just don't get it.

Some of my family were furious with me for enrolling my daughter. My father still doesn't know I'm in MA but he won't have anything nice to say if I ever tell him.

My mother-in-law chuckles. Grrr. But she is a mother-in-law. She thinks it's silly for me to do Karate. Grrr. She also laughed when I was running and lifting weights. Grrr again. She knows my daughter is teaching me and doesn't understand the fact that I'm actually enrolled in a MA academy and planning to get my black belt and teach.

I have received very positive responses from men, teenaged or adult. The teenagers think it's cool. The adult men are glad to see a woman learning self-defense.

 

[Hand Sword]

Back when I was a bouncer and it would slip that I studied MA I usually got the standard "I kicked some karate guys butt once" from some jerkweed...The word katate guy was often interchanged with "bouncer at clubs name" and usually my answer was dependant on my mood and the amount of alcohol I had injested..Normally it was my standard "Not my butt you didn't" or "Not when I was on duty"...

LOL! I always heard that too. Some jerk would always challenge us and say "I am a boxer and I eat Karate guys for breakfast!"

Lol!

 

[Drac]

LOL! I always heard that too. Some jerk would always challenge us and say "I am a boxer and I eat Karate guys for breakfast!"

Lol!

Again our retort would be based on the amount of alcohol comsumed..Something to the effect "Start eating"...